Hollywood portrays nurses as mutely following a doctor’s orders, or moving things around near the patient or acting merely as romantic foils in the plot. Why is that bad? According to co-authors Sandy and Harry Jacobs Summers in Saving Lives: Why the Media’s Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All at Risk, “A key element underlying many of the immediate causes of the [nursing] shortage is poor public understanding of what nurses really do.”
The newest selection in the ADVANCE Book Club for Nurses, Saving Lives presents well-researched and insightful information on the entire issue.
The husband and wife duo watched hours of television, read hundreds of newspaper articles and books on nursing, and came up with some intriguing examples of why and how nurses aren’t respected in healthcare. They offer practical suggestions for how nurses, community members, etc., can nudge the media into promoting a better image. Read the book and join the discussion at ADVANCE for Nurses: http://nursing.advanceweb.com/
Next book for ADVANCE Book Club for Nurses goes live Jan. 6, with a personal view into one nurse’s addiction experience in Impaired: A Nurse’s Story of Addiction and Recovery by Patricia Holloran, RN.
About the ADVANCE for Nurses Online Book Club for Nurses
The online book club discusses six books annually. A book is read and discussed every 2 months. After reading Holloran’s Impaired in January, the book club will switch gears in March 2010 to World War II with We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese by Elizabeth Norman, July 7, Still Alice by Lisa Genova and in September commemorating the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina read Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina, co-author Denise Danna, DNS, RN. Other books will be added to the 2010 roster. Similar to a traditional book club, members read the book and join in on the online conversation, which is complemented by a podcasted interview or video with the author or a related expert.
About ADVANCE for Nurses
ADVANCE for Nurses addresses the needs and interests of RNs across the country with nine regional newsmagazines reaching more than 800,000 nurses, 16 regional Web sites, live and virtual events, and social networks.
